Hamamelidaceae, the witch hazel family (order Saxifragales), comprising about 30 genera and about 100 species of shrubs and trees native to both tropical and warm temperate regions. Several species are cultivated as ornamentals.
Members of the family are characterized by alternate simple leaves and flowers usually having four or five often strap-shaped or small petals and four or five sepals. Sometimes either or both sepals and petals are lacking. Fruits are woody.
Both witch hazel (Hamamelis) and winter hazel (Corylopsis) are grown in temperate climates as ornamentals for their flowers that appear in very early spring. Various species of Fothergilla, sometimes known as witch alders, are also grown for their spring flowers as well as for their striking fall foliage.
Autumn leaf colour, changing from golden yellow to orange and scarlet, is also an outstanding trait of Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica), a small tree from northern Iran. Its flowers, produced before the leaves, have drooping stamens, lack petals, and have brown leaflike bracts. This tree’s close-grained wood is very strong, as are the twigs of the related Parrotiopsis jacquemontiana, which is used in its native Himalayan area for making baskets and bridges. A deciduous tree with petalless flowers, white bracts, and erect stamens, it is taller than Persian ironwood, reaching about 6 metres (20 feet). The still taller Japanese shrub Disanthus cercidifolius has dark purple flowers and leaves that turn crimson red in fall.
The timber of the Himalayan and tropical Asian genus Exbucklandia (by some authorities Symingtonia), which has two species, is much valued.